The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) will hold a Single Topic Conference entitled "Characterization of Membrane Transport Mechanisms" on June 16-18, 1991 at the Edith Macy Conference Center, Briarcliff Manor, New York. The Organizing Committee of the Single Topic Conference was charged with the organization of this meeting by the Council and the Research Committee of the AASLD because of a perceived need to provide an update for its members on the very latest information concerning the cellular and molecular aspects of membrane transport. The current proposal seeks partial support to allow 12 postdoctoral fellows to attend the conference. The Single Topic Conference will address very recent technical developments and concepts in the characterization of membrane transport proteins. In considering the content of the meeting and possible participants, it was concluded that much of the most advanced work in the field of membrane transport has been done in organ or cellular systems other than the liver by investigators outside of the AASLD membership. Accordingly, to optimally stimulate investigators and trainees working in the field of hepatic transport, approximately 35 distinguished investigators, most from other fields, have been invited to review their work in a series of concise, state-of-the-art lectures of 20-30 minutes duration. The topics to be covered in this conference include: 1. the identification of facilitated transport mechanisms, 2. the identification and isolation of transport proteins, 3. establishing the function of a putative transport protein, 4. genetic reconstitution of transport systems in prokaryotic and mammalian cells, and 5. xenobiotic transport: antibiotics and the MDR system. The overall objectives of the conference, in addition to providing information on recent developments in the molecular and cellular biology of membrane transport systems, are to encourage the application of the newest research strategies to investigative hepatology and to stimulate further efforts by young investigators to work in this area.